Website conversions are definitely the ultimate goal. But when coming up with the objective of your site it’s important to define what exactly a conversion is.

Retail Websites

Selling small-ticket pieces and parts on the web has a pretty clear definition for conversion – a sale. And we know from overall tracking and web standards that the average retail website conversion rate falls somewhere between 1% – 4%. That is for an immediate sale.

Consultative Websites

If, on the other hand, you provide a service or large-ticket items you may not get to experience that immediate conversion rate from your traffic. Your sales cycle can be quite a bit longer.

So if your definition of conversion were to stop at instant sales, and you are expecting a set it and forget it web presence with an automatic cash register ringing in the background, you could be leaving a substantial amount of money behind.

Lead Capture

You absolutely must expand your definition of a conversion to include “lead capture” which will include building tools into place to grab those additional prospects who aren’t ready to convert through a purchase transaction.

This is done through a free signup or download that we discussed back in the Lead Capture phase. And that strategy alone will give you the ability to capture the contact information of an additional 2% or more of your website traffic.

By expecting and building that extra effort into your sales, you could potentially double your conversion rate and enjoy that previously lost or ignored longer-term revenue.